bloke_zero

Anyone know where I might get a fender style medium scale neck? Seem rare as hens teeth!

I have a jaguar shaped body that I'd like to put a short scale or medium neck into but has a standard p-bass size neck pocket. I know I'll have to move the bridge etc. A mustang or bronco neck would be too narrow, and the Warmoth site is giving me the yips thinking about cites and import duty - & I'd have to get something custom from them as I don't think their warhead shortscale necks would fit. Anyone know of any options in the UK for a reasonably priced (I guess under £200?) option. I saw a retrovibe neck that would fit but the headstock would be too jarring as it's 2 + 2!

Sorry missed the jazz bit!

Microphonic effect through the neck to the body or transmitted through the strings?

Mmm - interesting! I can see https://www.facebook.com/Lusithand/photos/a.1686471474749710/3388690064527834/ But i'm struggling to find more details as FB brings me out in hives... When I have secured the funds maybe talking to Martin will help, but I like putting the thing together in my head first.

It did cross my mind! But then the commercial side of me reminded myself that a decent e-commerce website always costs more than a bass - even a really nice one! The big thing for them is that it kills their search - putting the info in an iframe effectively seals it off from google as there is no direct link to the necks page. I work on websites all day long, consider myself a digital native, and I thought they didn't make separate necks anymore becasue I couldn't find them on google - should have just asked here!

2nd worst website I've seen this year - that you can't link to a page just the frame - thanks for the link though! Suddenly thinking about this for a build...

Back in the day they made the Cutlass with a modulus graphite neck: https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/cool-and-classic-basses-music-man-cutlass-bass-573243

Interesting - so Peavey bought the MIDI/fret system - I wonder what stopped production in 92?

Thats what I was thinking - though you'd need the wiring diagram to be sure - might be parallel! There are passive treble and bass circuit - there is one on the G&L L2000 - to be fair that doesn't really look like it though - again hard to know without seeing the cap values.

I had a loan of one of those in the 90's - amazing sounding things - the filter options were pretty basic but you're right - the raw tone was nuts. Really clever 'instant tracking' because it was the sound from the pickup, just wave shaped. I think the idea is that there is more clarity as there is less crosstalk between strings but without having played with one I can't verify. I was wondering about exactly that question here: Where there are a couple of 8 coil MM pickups listed.

Only while their top end hearing is intact - after a few years they'll be mooching around after round sounding P-basses like everyone else.

The only rational thing to do is keep the stingray and build up something boutique with this herrick pickup, with the rout a cm or so closer to the neck - I estimate it'd only cost 2 or 3 K to get something really bumping! (Or maybe thats what i'd do if I had the money).

I guess it's like a halfway between high mass and old school L-shape. There are things to be said for both - arguably with a lower mass bridge more of the string resonance will be transferred to the body shortening the sustain but making the bass feel more live and changing the tone. Or something like that! People have very strong views on it as you'd expect 🤷‍♂️

Great article - cleared up a lot of stuff for me, especially star grounding - I kept looking for the grounding jumpers between the pots before reading the text about a shielded pickguard providing the ground connection. I didn't realise that adding ground jumpers could increase noise!

Maybe! I just went on an emotional rollercoaster going passive to active, not liking active and going back to passive and then back to active on a stingray build. I did it becasue the voicing of the MM pickup is, because of it's position close to the bridge, always going to be a bit bass light. Switching from the PU from series to parallel wiring made it work with the preamp much better (stingrays are normally parallel). One of the things that Rautia guys reference is emphasised mids and a nasal quality (great marketing!) so that top end clarity (that I love with the passive sound) came at a cost of somethig I had to EQ pretty radically when recording - which is a no for me.

I see what you're saying: https://www.rautiaguitars.net/multi-coil-bass-pickups.html# Same tip - there is an openness to the sound I like - prefer the parallel to series on them. Nice demo on that page.

I'm considering building up a passive bass with a MM pickup and, sparked by someone necro-ing a Wal thread on here I went and revisted: https://www.herrickpickups.com/products/split-8-coil-mm-humbucker/ I was looking to get an idea of the tone but didn't find too much except for these 2: Which are pretty tantalising - just wondered if anyone had some direct experience they could share!

Seems like he's using it to trigger a synth at about 5:12

Need to know more! Let us know how the tracking works after calibration... I'm particularly interested in the note articulation like bend or tremelo. Looks awesome - I like that they have partnered with Warmoth for the bodies.

A mate of mine swears that if it isn't an alder p-bass with nitro finish it isn't worth a look.

I think hooky means on the sound! If you encase a vibrating mass in plastic then the plastic (poly) will have a large effect on the tonality of the mass as opposed to say nitro or wax or oil. There are a lot of questions about how much wood affects the tone as opposed to pickups, electronics and strings, but as rational beings I think we'd agree that all these things play a part.

John East Pre is really nice and drop in. Sounds great - very expensive. Or this - super cheap if you solder: https://www.musikding.de/Classic-Bass-Preamp-Preamp-kit The gy that designed it gives an interesting rundown of the process: here is a weird google translation! https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fandyszeugs.wordpress.com%2Fmusicman-stingray-classic-preamp%2F Pickups are legion! I got a Nordstrand MM 4.4 - sounds really good to me. I planned to have a lot of switching options but in the end am just running it parallel - old school style. It's worth checking that if you're going for a sound-a-like the impedence is right as otherwise the interaction between the pickup and the preamp might not work well (if you check the german article I linked there are some remarks in the comments) I'd upgrade the pickup first as it's really good to know what the passive sound is first.